Centerpin (Float) Fishing Gear

[MichaelAngelo]

(01-14-2013 12:23 PM)zippyFX Wrote:  I have found [muskiebait avert your eyes] some discount reels on ebay that I thought may be interesting to try.

Fishfight bought one of these cheap pins a while ago and it wasn't up to par. I think I saw them anywhere from $20-$50.

I bought a used Okuma Aventa for $100. It was crap... the bearings were damaged and the reel was out of alignment. The spool was not balanced and would rotate so that it sat with the heaviest section of the spool pointing down.

Here's what I thought... the premise of a centerpin is a freely rotating spool. Dead simple, nothing can go wrong. No, I was WRONG about this.

Centerpins are precision equipment. The spool must be perfectly balanced and the bearings must be top-notch... or there is no point in using a centerpin.

If there is the slightest imperfection in spool balance, the reel will not spin freely and will hang up with the heaviest part of the spool towards the ground.

If the bearings are not top-notch, then the current of slow flows will not be enough to pay out line.

I was so frustrated with my $100 aventa... it wasn't even worth it.

This is something that'll cost money to be worth getting into. This is NOT the case with other types of reels. A cheap spinning reel will do just fine. A cheap centerpin is friggin POINTLESS. I went through this frustration two months ago.


PS: I haven't spent enough time with my centerpin to say that it helps me catch more fish, but I can say that fighting the fish is a lot more interesting. There's no drag, so you feel every pull of the fish and choose how much pressure to apply. It's a unique experience.

Here's an interesting kicker... one would say and advantage to the pin is that you can fish long drifts and just let the float go down the stream as far as the eye can see. In reality, it doesn't work that way because DEPTHS CHANGE. If the fish are holding the bottom and your depth is set to 4', it's ONLY GOOD FOR A FEW FEET OF DRIFTING ANYWAYS! The rest of the drift is wasted because depth may have changed to 3' or 5'.

I hope a pinning expert can correct the above statement if I'm wrong...